Turkey: Erdogan challenges Europe on death penalty

The country is on the brink of war with Syria, the conflict of Turkish Kurdistan with PKK is causing an increasing number of victims, and appeals from all over the world are pouring in for Kurdish detainees who are on their 63rd day of a hunger strike. Yet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have the return of the death penalty in the country as a priority.

The Islamic national premier has raised the issue three times in a week, the local press noted, questioning a move which worries secularists in the country as well as the European Union. If the death penalty became once again legal in the country, it would be the end of Turkey's candidature for EU membership. (continue reading...)